US Airstrike Hits the Caliph of ISIS!

[jordan179]

According to Al-Arabiya News, "Fate of 'critically wounded' ISIS chief unclear', an American airstrike has seriously injured and may have killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the vermin in human form who heads the self-proclaimed Islamic State, famous for torturing and murdering civilians for the glory of God and entertainment value.  This happy event

Comments

[anonymous]

Assad created ISIS. Why are we helping him?

[jordan179]

I am not sure that your first statement (Assad created ISIS) is factually correct and at present ISIS is extremely hostile to the Assad regime. While it is true that fighting ISIS indirectly helps Assad, the main reason why we are fighting ISIS is because ISIS is fighting both America and an American ally (Iraq). Are you saying that we must let Iraq fall and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis be gruesomely murdered by ISIS just to avoid indirectly helping Assad? Does that prioritization of goals really make sense to you?

[anonymous]

Iraq is little more than a puppet of Iran. Let them fall.

[jordan179]

... resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and the torture of hundreds of thousands more? Why are you so willing to see innocents die en masse?

Furthermore, this would also result in ISIS conquering Syria and Iraq, and thus being in a position to launch more wars. Why do you wish to see this outcome?

Seriously, Andrew Marston of Marshfield, MA, do you want an aggressive, warlike Islamic Caliphate to be restored? If so, why? Do you just like watching Arabs die?

[xiphias]

Because all other choices are worse. Yeah, it sucks. Yeah, at some level of abstraction, we're both fighting for and against Assad.

But it's the best option we've got at the moment.

[anonymous]

Sure, if you like North Koreas and Turkmenistans.

Because something tells me that Syria isn't going to return to being a stable authoritarian quasi-republic should Assad win the war.

[jordan179]

Sure, if you like North Koreas and Turkmenistans.

Your statement makes no sense, as North Korea is far worse than was Assad's Syria, and ISIS is even worse than North Korea. A logical preference list, based on humanitarian or security resaons, would be Syria, then North Korea, then ISIS.

Because something tells me that Syria isn't going to return to being a stable authoritarian quasi-republic should Assad win the war.

What is this "something?" What do you believe that Syria will instead become? And in what way would this Syrian autocracy be worse than ISIS?

[anonymous]

I think if Assad wins, he'll put Sunnis in concentration camps.

[jordan179]

So, you're saying that if Assad wins, he'll imprison but spare the lives of the Sunnis, but if ISIS wins,they'll continue their present policy of slaughtering the Shi'ites? That's a reason to support Assad over ISIS.

Hint: A "concentration camp" is a civilian internment camp where members of a suspect population are imprisoned to "concentrate" them. The term you probably meant to use was death camp.

But even granted your theory, why is Assad slaughtering Sunnis worse than ISIS slaughtering Shi'ites? What's more, ISIS is demonstrably more aggressive than Assad, so an Assad victory implies that Assad mostly confines his murderousness to his own borders, while an ISIS victory implies that ISIS launches wars of aggression against other countries.

This is, in point of fact, one of the reasons why we allied with Stalin against Hitler.

[ford_prefect42]

And there's the cause of so many divisive problems. Every time someone chooses the lesser of evils, everyone gets to project what might have been if the leadership had made a different choice.

[xiphias]

Yup.

There are no good choices, and everybody will be able to argue afterward that their bad choice would have been less bad than the one that was chosen.

And some of them will be right.

[ford_prefect42]

And no one will ever know which ones were right. But many people will be very very certain.

The 800lb Reanimated Gorilla

[silent_o]

Setting aside the dubious nature of your claim...

Dr. Frankenstein creates a monster that terrorizes the countryside. Angry mob ignores the beast destroying property and lives to break down the castle gates and hang Dr. Frankenstein.

Monster continues rampage despite death of creator.

*head asplode*

-

Oh Yama. You've made my night. Always a pleasure. <3

Re: The 800lb Reanimated Gorilla

[anonymous]

You do realize Assad deliberately ignored ISIS until it backfired on him and Maliki?

Re: The 800lb Reanimated Gorilla

[jordan179]

Yes, so what? Our choice in Syria and Iraq are not between ISIS and the Perfect Regime, it is between ISIS and Assad in Syria, and ISIS and an imperfect junta in Iraq. If we follow your advice, we would sit around impotently waiting for the Perfect Rebels to emerge against in the region, and we would still be sitting around waiting when the Caliphate spilled over its borders to attack the rest of the world.

Re: The 800lb Reanimated Gorilla

[silent_o]

And?